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Today’s increasingly global marketplace is resulting in more organizations sending employees to work outside their home countries as expatriates. Consequently, identifying factors influencing expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment at work and performance has become an increasingly important issue for both researchers and firms. Drawing on Kim et al. (2008), this study examines the critical elements to expatriate success, which are the relationships between cultural intelligence, cross-cultural adjustment at work, and assignment-specific performance. One-hundred and fifty-one expatriates working within the energy sector, who were mainly located in the Middle East completed questionnaires, investigating: cultural intelligence (Cultural Intelligence Scale), cross-cultural adjustment (Expatriate Adjustment Scale), performance (Expatriate Contextual/Managerial Performance Skills), cultural distance (Kogut and Singh’ index), length of staying in the host country and international work experience. Findings indicated that the four cultural intelligence components were directly and indirectly (through cross-cultural adjustment at work) associated with performance. The positive relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment at work was stronger when cultural distance was low, when expatriates were at the beginning of a new international assignment, and when they had lower experience. Organizations can greatly benefit from hiring cross-culturally intelligent expatriates for international assignments, providing their employees with pre-departure training programs aimed at increasing cultural intelligence, and giving them organizational resources and logistical help to support them.

Purpose -This study aims to clarify to what extent, how and under what conditions role conflict is positively related to employee creativity. Drawing on activation theory and conservation of resources theory, we hypothesized an inverted U-shaped relationship between role conflict and creativity in which the relationship is stronger and positive at intermediate levels of role conflict. Additionally, we predicted that this curvilinear path would be mediated by cognitive adjustment at work and moderated by mindfulness.Design/Methodology/Approach -To test our hypotheses, we conducted two independent studiesa cross-sectional study with 123 employees from an Italian firm and a time-lagged research with 320 employees from various U.K. firms.Findings -Consistent with our predictions, polynomial regression analysis results provided evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between role conflict and creativity and for the mediating role of cognitive adjustment at work. Moreover, when mindfulness was high (versus low), intermediate levels of role conflict were associated with increased cognitive adjustment at work and creativity.Implications -Our findings enhance current understanding of the conditions under which different levels of role conflict boost or impair creativity at work and offer new insights into how employee can maintain an optimal level of creativity despite conflicting role demands.Originality/Value -This is the first study to document a non-linear and indirect relationship between role conflict and employee creativity, as well as to identify mindfulness as a boundary condition shaping the creativity-enhancing effects of role conflict.

In the service sector, customer-related social stressors may weaken employees’ well-being, impairing job-related outcomes. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory and on the psychology of sustainability, fostering personal resources become critical to encourage service providers who can effectively manage such job demands. This study investigated how customer-related social stressors and customer orientation influence service recovery performance and whether resilience buffers the negative effects of customer incivility on service recovery performance. One hundred and fifty-seven Italian customer-contact employees completed a questionnaire analyzing customer incivility, customer-related social stressors, resilience, customer orientation, and service recovery performance. Regression analyses and SEMs were conducted. Although all customer-related social stressors indirectly and negatively influenced service recovery performance by increasing burnout symptoms, customer incivility only exerted a direct and detrimental impact on service recovery performance. Customer orientation was directly and positively associated with service recovery performance. Highly resilient employees were less affected by variations in service recovery performance across customer incivility levels. Within the psychology of sustainability framework, promoting resilient workplaces is crucial to foster healthy and sustainable work settings. Service organizations can greatly benefit from providing their employees with psychological resilience training programs, cultivating high customer-oriented attitudes through mentoring sessions, and hiring highly customer-oriented and resilient employees for customer-contact occupations.

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COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy poses serious challenges in achieving adequate vaccine coverage in the general population. While most studies on vaccine hesitance determinants during the COVID‐19 pandemic were quantitative, qualitative research on the reasons for vaccine resistance is still lacking. To fill this gap, this study aims to qualitatively investigate cognitive and emotional factors associated with COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy. This qualitative pilot study was conducted between October and November 2021 in Italy. A total of 40 COVID‐19 vaccine‐hesitant (“hesitant not vaccinated” or “hesitant but vaccinated”) individuals completed anonymous questionnaires with open‐ended questions. Data were analysed using the Interpretive Description approach. The central theme that emerged about vaccine hesitancy was the lack of control. This construct included four different sub‐categories: distrust of the government, infodemic, influence of family, and general anti‐vaccine opinions. The results also showed that the most important emotional and cognitive factors associated with hesitancy were anger related to a perceived sense of oppression; emotional avoidance to minimize risk; anxiety related to potential vaccine side effects. Identifying and understanding factors influencing COVID‐19 vaccination hesitancy is crucial to improving communication strategies that will ultimately result in increased confidence and vaccine acceptance.

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